Lezet "Meld5" / TBC012

Lezet is one-man experimental project from Serbia with over 70 releases on various net-labels (including our favourite Clinical Archives) and MELD is the series of Lezet’s albums on which he explores the possibilities of remote collaborations with avantgarde artists form all over the world.

“I collaborate with artists in a number of ways – we take each other's released or unreleased bits and pieces and use it as timbre, or we take another one's entire song and make a reinterpretation/reconstruction/deconstruction/improvised medley of the original piece. Sometimes the track is the result of a simple idea or sequence being exchanged back and forth until it becomes a complete track.”

“The first and the third volume are a mixed bag, the second and the fourth are based on freejazz/improvisation/fusion/rio, and this fifth volume seems to have taken a somewhat different turn in terms of style.”

“The real strength to the entire MELD series is the spirit of collaboration itself. I consider these five volumes the greatest albums I've done so far. I've learned so much from the incredible friends I worked with and I developed and progressed with each step I took with them.”

Artwork by Vojislav Nedeljkovic, contains the images of giraffes made by kids from elementary school "Stevan Colovic", Arilje.

About the collaborators:

1. MIKE MARTINI (USA)http://www.myspace.com/199394880
I am the owner/tattoo artist of 'Square City Tattoo' here in fabulous, ice covered Chardon, OH. Home of maple syrup and snow but not much else. I was apprenticed by award winning artist Ron Antonick of Gen X Tattoos, Cleveland. I have been tattooing since 1998 and have owned my own shop since 2003. My shop was voted Best in Cleveland 2005 by Cleveland Scene magazine. http://bestof.clevescene.com/bestof/award.php?award=28360 I have been trained in Bloodborne pathogens, infection control and body modification aftercare by Dave Vidra of Health Professionals. I run a clean shop and do solid work. From mild to wild I will do it all. I'm a dad of 2 really awesome kids: Ona and Charlie. Been with the same girl for 16 years, Sheri, who has put up with all my projects and questionable sanity. Are you still reading? I kinda think this sounds maybe a little boring so far… OK then, I am also a musician, my last band, the Alter Boys did a brief tour in support of our album. The band's lineup included J. Mann from Mushroomhead and Ryan Dunn from MTV's Jackass and Viva la Bam. Erik Mattiews from Propain, Todd Smith from Dog Fashion Disco and my bro Craig who has been known to blaze notes on the big stage with the likes of guitar wizard Paul Gilbert. You can hear more guitar and some vocals I did in my 'other' band MUDFOOT on my 'mudfoot cleveland' profile page. I also have a comedy phone prank album which has gained international noteriety by having been used by bands like Tool, Racer X, Mushroomhead, Mastodon, Sepultura and Raging Speedhorn to date. Check out my pranks at the "orignial pranksta" profile here or at www.originalpranksta.com I've acted in a few TV commercials (mostly embarrasing ones) I have also been spotted playing your favorite rum bottle pirate, Captain Morgan, getting paid to give out drinks to the beautiful people in the Cleveland area. I am so glad you didn't bail out without finishing reading this. Wow, that was really nice of you. It makes me feel like you care. I like you even more now…"

2. CRAIG FURKAS (USA)http://www.myspace.com/craigfurkas
Craig's roots lie in serious classical training with one of his earliest performances of Samuel Barber's Piano Sonata earning him the Honor Award from the Detroit Musicians League. He also has a Bachelors Degree in Music Composition from Wayne State University in Detroit , Michigan . His music has been performed all over the Los Angeles area including The El-Rey Theater, Universal Bar and Grill,The Gigue, Club Lush & The Temple Bar and Grille. His engineering and music transcribing credits include Wendy Carlos, Eddie Jobson, Glen Campbell & Michael Narada Walden. He is currently working on several multi-media projects in the Detroit area, not limited to any one genre or influence. You can check out his many CD projects at cdbaby.com/all/furkas and myspace.com/craigfurkas.

3. DJOZR (USA)http://www.myspace.com/djozrhttp://www.projectopus.com/djozr
Djozr (pronounced /joe-zur/) is an ambient glitch / drone project.
"Much of my music is based on the idea of capturing a fleeting moment and curling up and living in it for awhile, exploring every nook and cranny, and this track is no exception. Hopefully I got the feeling of "lezet-ness" from the original track down; every piece of music and noise on this track has its genesis in a sample from "not of the loins," slowed down, sped up, repeated at irregular intervals, and/or cut into minuscule pieces."
Band Members: G. Alan Bryce: guitars, enormous amounts of processing
Influences: silence, mathematics, overtones, just intonation;
phil niblock, steve reich, iannis xenakis, karlheinz stockhausen, gyorgy ligeti, krzysztof penderecki, john cage;
mark rothko, de es schwertberger, roger dean, abstract expressionism, mystic art;
drone music, spectral music, aleatoric music;
refrigerators, washing machines and dryers, internal combustion engines, a radio dial tuning, dust, graininess, seti.
Sounds Like transmissions from aliens, the monolith from 2001, a CD skipping, the sound a modem makes, sounds falling apart, trains braking in the distance.

4. WINGS OF AN ANGEL (Israel)http://www.myspace.com/halodim
I offer all my projects absolutely free of charge. This is what I strongly believe in – sharing, inspiration and creative elevation. Art = Absolute Freedom. Art has no limits and must not be restricted to any material calculations. You may download my projects at:
1. haloDim (Broken Complex Records, 2005)
2. Paragon Black (Dusted Wax Kingdom, 2007)
3. Various + Bonus
4. Ayana (Clinical Archives, 2009)
5. Screaming Silence – The Concept of Pain (Clinical Archives, 2009)
"I gotta say this… Wings, if I had to predict the future of music, I would say listen to ANY of Wings' stuff, it's so advanced and beyond what we hear in these days & times. You should put an expiration date on your music: Will be good for the next 200 years. It's really that advanced! Truth is beautiful – YOUR MUSIC IS THE TRUTH"
"Way open-minded outer space aliens who smoke too much space dust would have your beats in their atomic ghetto blasters while they ponder the possibility of other life in the universe"
"Wings of an Angel's music cannot be listened to at a glance; it needs to be giving full attention, with no skipping thru songs. That very fact, while a refreshing revitalization in today’s hip hop world, will probably not move the casual listener. You know that "skim thru, find the hottest track and bump it in my I-pod" crowd, naw this is strictly for the purist. Wings of an Angel paints pictures on a sonic easel with musical watercolors"

Meld5 is a collaboration of several artists with Lezet and as such, each composition comes with a different
atmosphere and style. It is best to leave it
at that, because a listing of the
background of each of band would lead to
an endless name-dropping and divert the
attention from the review. In case,
someone is interested in this, the
homepage of the label offers some
insights on the matter:
http://www.turbinicarpus.net.ua/catalogue/tbc012.html

The problem for me is the following:
While I enjoy the music and find the ideas
quite interesting, it is hard for me to write
on it. The first track has some ‘idm’-
influences for instance, while other one
move in a different direction. The sheer
complexity of the art as well as the variety
of concept make it difficult for someone
with a metal background to give a proper presentation as well as discussion on the music.

Somehow symbolic seems my inability to open the ‘case’ or to move away the nails with which the case had been
sealed. Yes indeed, this CD is not distributed by a mere jewel case, it is sold as a hand-made thing. In order to
hold the cardboard paper together, in each corner a nail had been driven through both of these. Therefore, to
reach the desired artefact, part of it needs actually to be damaged or at least brought towards a new harmed state.
When you think about it, the same happens to a CD, tape or vinyl as well, once you attempt to play them in the
appropriate player. Yet, there the decrease in the level of quality appears rather on a small scale and is actually
negligible.

A bit on the music …

IDM, ambient, samples, a bit of noise, these are the basic elements of the compositions. Some – like the opener
for instance – have a nice beat to them, drown in some sort of a ‘positive’ vibe, while other – like the fourth are
more experimental and rather food for the brain, might require more of an analysis than listening to it rather
nonchalant. Actually, the longer the CD plays the more the music drift off into an experimental realm. The first two
compositions are rather easy, uplifting and ear-catchy – it would not be too farfetched to describe them being
appropriate for the summertime – while the other three are not only more complex but show also more facets than
the early ones.

This is especially apparent in ‘Poet's Nocturnal Peregrination through the Ruins of a Deserted Subterranean
Lunatic Asylum - A Nightmare Tragedy in Five Movements’. Here the listener is guided through various stages of
sounds and arrangements, whose ‘final’ is a form of intense as well as very atmospheric religious text recitation. In
some respect, it forms a counterpoint to the chaos presented in the previous segments of this composition. The
two and fro, the uncertainty in the arrangements, the endless switching of instruments and therefore noises
dissolves into a clear and understandable message. What leaves some sort of bitter taste here is the fact that the
actual text used in the chant belongs to the Christian mythology. Moreover, if you follow the line of thoughts
presented above, then the myth gives the impression of having moved out of the chaos and presented a clear
message, while the rest is an inexplicable mess.

As confusing as the cover artwork is and how (nearly) unfeasible it is to open the release, also the music itself
gives the impression of being a magical box whose deeper contents do not reveal themselves easily. The listener
needs a considerable amount of force – physical and intellectual – to penetrate the surface and to bring those
hidden elements into the bright (day-)light. Up to this day, the former of these two is something that was
impossible for me to do and as such, a certain amount of mystery remains. Currently, it is still available and the
chance to break these two barriers remains up for grasps. Nevertheless, 50 copies are not much, so you had
better hurry. Those who were not so lucky can still download the music from the Internet Archive.